Freezing tray



H. D. GEYER FREEZING TRAY July 5,, 19382 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 2, 1956 a K 101 114A 4;,

H. D. GEYER FREEZ ING TRAY July 5, 1938.

Filed July 2, 1936 Flumn20:

f/mvm 11,4

Patented July 5, 1938 2.122.937 FREEZING TRAY Harvey D. Geyer, Dayton,

eral Motors Corporation, poration of Delaware Ohio, assignor to Gen- Detroit, Mich, a cor- Applieation July 2, 1936, Serial No. 88,559

'1 Claims.

This invention relates to freezing trays such as are adapted for use in household refrigerators for freezing small blocks of ice for table use.

An object of this invention is to provide a flexible metal freezing pan which may be easily distorted by hand to a limited degree so as to free the frozen bond between the metal pan and its contents and thereby facilitate the removal of the frozen contents.

A more speciflc object is to provide a flexible metal pan having such shape that when filled with its frozen contents it may be set upon a flat surface and readily distorted by the hands by downward pressure on two of its diagonally opposed corners so as to free the frozen bond between the contents and the pan. An important feature of this invention is the simplicity of structure of the flexible metal pan and its consequent economy of manufacture.

Distortable flexible metal freezing pans have been proposed heretofore but theyhave been of relatively complicated design and have required quite skillful operation toeffectively free the frozen contents without injury either to the metal 25 pan or to the hands of the operator. The tray of this invention can be very easily properly flexed by a woman or child without danger of injury to the hands due to improperly grasping the tray, 30 since the tray is simply set upon a table or the like andpressed downwardly at opposite corners without grasping the tray with the fingers at all. Also there will be no danger of over-distortion of the metal pan thereby giving it a permanent set, 35 since there is a very definite limit to the degree of distortion which can be given the pan of this invention by pressing down its diagonally opposed corners. If a metal pan be given a permanent set, even in only slightly distorted form, its bottom wall'will not thereafter he flat.upon the usual metal support in the freezing compartment, which will greatly reduce the rapidity of freezing.

Another object of this invention is to provide the combination of an easily twisted metal container pan and a flexible soft rubber grid therefor of such design that after the frozen contents lit have been loosened from the pan a portion of the grid may be lifted from the pan and-the ice blocks removed therefrom without removing the remainlng portion of the grid and ice from the pan.

This obviously results in a material saving of ice blocks when only a few are desired at one time.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be. apparent from the following 55 description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings ment of the present In the drawings:

wherein a preferred embodiinvention is clearly shown.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an ice tray made according to this invention.

Fig.2 is

a side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation taken in the direction of arrow 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the simple method of twisting the flexible pan to loosen its frozen contents invention.

Fig. 5 illustrates therefrom according to this the removal of the grid and ice blocks from the pan after the operation shown in Fig. 4.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The flexible metal pan I0 is preferably made from flat sheet metal by a drawing or stamping operation in a well vide a bottom wall end walls Hi all integral. edges of the side walls I2 are to form the stiffening edges of the end walls wardly a substantial wardly to form the flanges l5 which serve as substantial bearing areas for the pressure of the hands during the operation shown in these hand bearing than as illustrated Fig. 4. Of course if desired flanges l5 can be made wider in the drawings, but I have found that the relative widths of flanges l5 as illustrated are ample to provide suflicient bearing areas for the hands for the flexing operation shown in Fig. 4 without undue pressure on the engaging portions of the hands.

Now the essential feature of pan of this inventi 20 of the flexible opposed corners M the flexible metal on is the raised corner area's bottom wall I I at two diagonally of the pan. Preferably these raised areas 20 slope upwardly toward the corners 2i at a small angle which extend. angularly across deflne raised portions tial areas that the upon which the pa twisted when these corner areas downwardly into contact with the the two lines 22 the corners and 20 having such substanentire pan Ill will be slightly 20 are forced plane surface The angular lines 22 beginning at n sets.

are preferably parallel to each other but not parallel to any of the rubber grid 30 which division walls of the flexible divides the frozen contents blocks of convenient size for xible rubber grid 30 shown in the drawings has a central longitudinal division wall 31 and a series of integrally molded transverse division walls 32 projecting laterally therefrom and forming two rows of ice block compartments each having at least one open side and the four corner compartments having two open sides. The central flexible rubber wall 3| has an integrally molded soft rubber projection 35 projecting over and beyond the flange l5 at each end of the pan l0 and serving as handles for lifting the previously loosened grid 30 and contained ice blocks from the pan Ill without inverting the pan, as shown in Fig. 5.

In operation, the removable flexible rubber grid 30 is set within the metal pan Ill and the pan is filled with water or other substance to be frozen as a kitchen table, and downward pressure applied at the two corners 2| preferably with the balls of the two hands as shown in Fig. 4. Only a relatively slight pressure is required to free the frozen contents from pan l0 since the first action is merely to flex the corner portions of pan l0 sufliciently to initiate the peeling of the ice contents loose from its frozen bond to the metal pan. After this peeling is once started it easily proceeds progressively throughout the entire area of the bottom wall llas well .as along the side walls l2 and end walls l3. When the raised areas 20 have been fully depressed until' they contact the table surface the entire pan ill will have taken on a slight: twisted distortion as shown in Fig. 4. Here the bottom of thepan at the other two diagonally opposed corners 23 is shown at 24 as raised slightly above the surface of the table. This peculiar elevation of the corners 23 by the operation shown in Fig. 4 is characteristic of the above described metal pan I0.

.It will be noted that after the raised areas 20 have been \depressed into full contact with the table surface they cannot be further depressed and hence there is a definite limit to the degree of twisting distortion that can be given pan ID by the operation of Fig. 4. This limit of distortion is so chosen by the degree of elevation of the raised areas 20 that the pan l0 cannot be given a permanent set or twistand hence will always return to its normal shape after the operation of Fig..4.' This is an important feature because if the pan Ill be twisted to such an extent that the main area of its bottom wall ,ll does not return to its flat form it will not thereafter rest fiat upon its shelf or support in the freezing chamber and hence the rate of freezing in subsequent freezing'operations will be very greatly reduced. Any flexible metal freezing pan which is flexed by hand to loosen the ice contents therefrom but has no definite stop to limit its degree of flexu're is practically certain to be over-flexed and permanently distorted after a short periodof use. The reason for this is the fact that as soon as the ice contents are loosened from the pan it very suddenly becomes much less resistant to the flexing force which consequently must be suddenly terminated or at least reduced at the instant the ice is loosened in order to avoid overflexure. The pan of this invention obviously avoids this common defect in prior flexible metal freezing trays.

After the ice contents and grid 30 are loosened from the metal pan ID by the operation shown in Fig. 4, the rubber grid 30 together with the ice contents may be completely removed from pan III by lifting up on the rubber handles 35, and the ice blocks thereafter may be easily removed individually with the fingers by picking them out of the open-sided compartments, or the completely flexible rubber grid may be easily twisted with the hands to cause the ice blocks to fall from the grid into a suitable container or dish.

If only a few ice blocks are desiredat -the time the grid 30 need not be completely removed from pan ill, but can be easily bent so that only a portion of the grid 30 may be lifted from the pan sufllciently high to pick out the desired number of ice blocks therefrom, after which the flexed portion of the grid is returned to its normal position in. pan l0 and the pan returned to the freezing chamber. This results in a material saving of the ice blocks. Fig. 5 illustrates how only a portion of the flexible rubber grid 30 may be lifted up to facilitate the removal of only a portion of the ice blocks.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A freezing container comprising: a metal pan having a bottom wall and peripheral side walls, said bottom wall being generally flat except at two diagonally opposite corners of said pan where substantial corner areas of said bottom wall slope upwardly to said corners at a distinct angle and thereby clear a flat supporting surface upon which the pan may beset, said metal pan pressure upon said, diagonally opposite corners thereof. b

2. A freezing container comprising: a flexible metal pan having a bottom wall and peripheral side walls, said bottom wall having two diagonal.- ly opposite corner areas thereof sloping upwardly to the diagonally opposed corners of said pan at a relatively small angle, said metal pan being so twistable as a whole by vertical downward pressure applied thereto'at said diagonally opposite corners as to readily free the frozen bond between said pan and its frozen contents.

3. A freezing container comprising: a metal F35 being distortable as a whole by downward pan having flexible bottom and side walls of sheet metal," said bottom wall having such substantial corner areas thereof sloping upwardly to the pan corners at a distinct angle to the plane of the main portion of said bottom wall as to render said pan readily distortable as a whole by thereof when said pan is supported upon a flat surface.

4. A freezing container comprising: a metal pan having flexible bottom and side walls of sheet vertical downward pressure upon he corners metal, said bottom wall having such substantial corner areas thereof sloping upwardly to the pan corners at a distinct angle to the plane of the main portion of said bottom wall as to render said pan readily distortable as a whole by vertical downward pressure upon the corners thereof when said pan is supported upon a flat surface, and a removable grid for dividing the frozen contents of said pan into ice blocks.

5. A freezing container comprising; a metal pan having flexible bottom and side walls of sheet metal, said bottom wall having such substantial corner areas thereof sloping upwardly to the pan corners at a distinct angle to the plane of the main portion of said bottom wall as to render said pan readily distortable as a whole by vertical downward pressure upon the corners thereof when said pan is supported upon a flat' I pan of generally rectangular shape having a flexible metal bottom wall, said bottom wall having two diagonally opposed corner areas raised above the plane of the main portion of said bottom wall to a greater extent than at the two remaining corners of said pan, whereby said pan may be given a limited twisting distortion as a whole by downward pressure thereon at the two diagonal corners thereof having said raised corner areas.

7. A portable freezing tray adapted for use in household refrigerators, comprising: a flexible metal pan drawn from one piece of flat sheet metal and having a generally flat bottom wall, but having relatively small opposed end areas of said bottom wall slightly raised above the plane of the main portion of said bottom wall, whereby said pan may be given a limited twisting distortion as a whole by downward pressure thereon at two diagonally opposed corners of said pan.

HARVEY D. GEYER. 

